Keke Palmer Thrives As Precocious Young Speller

Movie director Doug Atchison finally found his dream girl, and she was 10 years old at the time. Her name is Keke Palmer.</p>
<p>She plays the title role in "Akeelah and the Bee," the story of a child from South Central Los Angeles in pursuit of the National Spelling Bee championship. A kindly but haunted academic named Dr. Larabee (played by Laurence Fishburne) sees promise in Akeelah and agrees to coach her. In the end, teacher and student will prove to be each other's salvation.</p>
<p>"I had written this character who is very complicated, a demanding role for any actress," says Atchison, "and I wondered if we were going to be able to find a kid who could do it."</p>
<p>Palmer, now a precocious 12-year-old in lip gloss and ballet flats, picks up the story:</p>
<p>"On the second-to-last callback," she says, "it was a crying scene, where I had to cry to my mom (played in the movie by Angela Bassett.) I said my lines and the tears just started to come out. I think I was so nervous that it helped me cry. And when it was over, I shook hands with the producers, and when I got to Doug, he got up and hugged me, and he said, 'Thank you soooo much.'</p>
<p>"When I got out of the room," she continues, "I told my mom, 'That meant, thank you soooo much for making it so easy for me to give you the part.' "</p>
<p>"It was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders," says Atchison. "Every time Keke (pronounced kee-kee) would come in (to audition), I would start to feel more confident that we could do this. I knew the movie was going to hinge on finding someone to play Akeelah."</p>
<p>Atchison dreamed up the "Akeelah" storyline after watching the 1994 televised Scripps National Spelling Bee. He was fascinated with the drama of the high-stakes competition and the fact many contestants came from well-to-do families who hired spelling coaches for their children.</p>
<p>But, he wondered, what if there was one kid who had all the raw talent but not the access to the tools, or the encouragement from her family? What if she was growing up in struggling South Central Los Angeles, and she heard gunfire and hovering police helicopters in her neighborhood every night? Atchison knew the area well from his years in film school at the University of Southern California, which is located nearby.</p>
<p>So he wrote the script and, in 2000, it won the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But Atchison was far from getting the movie made, at least until Fishburne came on as a producer.</p>
<p>"I got involved because I love the story, I love the characters," Fishburne says. "I had lived in the area for many years, in my teens and early 20s. My mother was an educator, and one of my early mentors was a professor of literature at a college in New York. And I have a teenage daughter ... This is a beautiful story. You may think you know what it's about, but it will surprise you, it will move you, it will inspire you," says Fishburne.</p>
<p>As important to him as the other qualities of Atchison's script was the almost heroic portrayal of a pre-adolescent African American girl.</p>
<p>"They are very, very underrepresented in cinema," he says. "My daughter is 14 years old, and so it was important for me to make a picture that she could go to and see a reflection of herself."</p>
<p>As young as she is, Palmer is quickly building a resume. In 2004, she earned a Screen Actor's Guild nomination for her performance in the TV drama "The Wool Cap."</p>
<p>"She's on her way," says Atchison.